30 Days of Thanks, Day 24: Reflective

While looking up the definition of the word "reflective," I stumbled upon an article in the Washington Post.  The majority of the article was about which wine to have with Thanksgiving dinner, but what took me there was found in this paragraph:

Many of us will be having a quieter, more intimate Thanksgiving because of the pandemic and soaring positivity rates. Some have felt the economic pain, as states and cities shut businesses to help curtail the virus’s spread. All too many families will have an empty chair at the table. Thanksgiving this year may be more reflective than festive. We may even wonder why we should feel thankful at all.

I think we've drifted a long way from the original Thanksgiving and it's purpose.  It wasn't "turkey day."   It wasn't about food and football or preparing for Black Friday sales.  I believe that day was more reflective than festive.  From Wikipedia:

The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days, and, as recounted by attendee Edward Winslow, was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings," days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.  

Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by President George Washington after a request by Congress. President Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. On June 28, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Holidays Act that made Thanksgiving a yearly appointed federal holiday in Washington D.C.  

 

2020 has challenged all of us.  I am not in any way downplaying the losses.  But I do believe, if we honestly reflect on God's goodness, we will find a way to be thankful.